scene setting and inspired mes-en-scene

We have been inspired by the style which Kate Nash's video's use and we are trying to re-create parts of Kate Nash's style in our videos with the funky mes-en-scene therefore as we have a scene in a cafe we looked into ways we could represent this through the mes-en-scene and how we may be able to decorate the table. We have produced a mood board of all the mes-en-scene we feel we coould replecate and that represents how we want our set to look.

We felt the bold colours and shapes reflect Kate Nash's style which we like and are  influenced by. These cakes and biscuits are also relevent to the cafe set we will be using.

asking Katheleen and Lily's

music video Porposal Treatment

The music video proposal treatment is our first plan of what we would like our music video to be based on and what has influenced the concept of it so far. This has enabled us to to plan how we intend to carry out our project and plan a base for our pitch.  

Music Video Proposal Treatment

The band/artist genre and song title?

We have chosen to use Kate Nash’s song; ‘Skeleton song’ for our music video. Kate Nash’s genre is indie-pop, combining a narrative video, typical of the indie genre with an upbeat track. Her song covers the issues surrounding relationships, in particular of a relationship which is dead. This is a typical convention of a pop genre topic.

What image will you create for them (similar to which artists/bands), how is this suitable to genre?

We intend to create a 60’s vintage image for our artist, as we feel this was a core element of the mes-en-scene in Kate Nash’s videos. This matches the pop-indie genre as fashion is often an essential to the artist’s appearance, and image. However as both the artist and song has an indie element to it, the fashion will not be current but fashionable for the 60’s theme we are using. 

What visual style are you intending to create (colours/cam/edit/effects/lighting), how does this relate to the mood of the song?

The song has an uplifting beat but the lyrics hint at regret and the artist’s feelings of being stuck in a dead relationship. Therefore we are intending to use the isolated lights in parts (using a spotlight in parts) sepia effect to echo the past and use of hand-held camera work to convey a ‘home video’ in part of our video.

What will happen in the video (narrative) and how does this relate to the song lyrics/ music and mood of the song?

The video will use the character of a skeleton to illustrate the dead relationship. However as the song is upbeat the beat will be represented in a small performance element at the beginning of the video. The skeleton character also refers to the lyrics ‘skeleton you are my friend’ which Kate Nash sings about throughout the song.

How is this targeting / meeting expectation of the audience?

By following the artist’s genre the video will interest the same audience of 15-25 year olds and they will expect to see unconventional illustrations of a conventional ‘relationship’ pop genre which is commonly found in Kate Nash’s videos. 

Test shot music video and framing

This is a still shot of our practice with the camera. We have have learned a lot from doing this such as how to frame the shot properly and use lighting more effectively. The frame has not been set so the characters can easily be noticed, the frame includes too much of the environment around them, so the focus has been taken off of the main singer. The lighting is also badly done as they make the setting appear dingy and darkens out the characters which should be the focus of the shot. From this task we have understood the importance of framing and lighting and the effects it has on the attention of the audience onto the characters.    

Costume

We have researched into the typical fashion used by our artist Kate Nash. Kate Nash's style is of a 60's vintage theme, we intend to use her 60's style dress for the cast of our video, as we feel this is a strong influence of the music's cross over indie-pop genre. She uses bold statement accessories such as block colour ray band sunglasses and beaded necklaces.

RESEARCH! and notes

Things our video needs to include

Just some research on the audience we need to relate to

Textual analysis grid- Ellen's

Textual analysis grid- Amelia's

Textual analysis grid
I found this really helpful to do as the group and I realized what kind of video we were aiming for.
The song I used ('Foundations') is a very typical Kate Nash video and I would really like to produce something similar.
The context is fairly similar to ours in terms of describing the breakdown of a relationship.
If we can pull of a video to this standard, I will be really happy.

Textual Analyses Grid - Jenny's

The Textual Analyses Grid was used in order for us to recognise our artist's music video style; what they incorporated, and used, and whether or not their videos are mostly conceptual, narrative, or performance based. Through doing this research we have found a number of common reoccurrences throughout Kate Nash's videos such as her 60's theme, her use of abstract conceptual ideas to portray the lyrics in her songs, and her use of conceptual narratives. The grid also helps us to analyse how to differentiate our video from that of a television production; using fast cuts and cuts in time to the rhythm of the music. The Mes-en -scene has also been shown to be a key aspect of the videos we have analysed.   

step outline!

Step Outline: Kate Nash: ‘Skeleton Song’

Structure

Song Length:

Locations: Stage, house, launderette, clothes shop, café, art gallery, tram

Characters: 1 girl (‘Kate Nash’), 1 Skeleton

Out point. Description of Scenes

7-10 seconds	‘Kate Nash’ (KN) walk into theatre and towards the keyboard Pre-intro (no music)
8 seconds	Spotlight on, playing keyboard, see Skeleton (Skele) Introduction: Insturmental
30 seconds	Establishing house; waking up in bed, breakfast, getting ready in mirror, etc. Split with keyboard playing in appropiate places Verse one
3 seconds	KN playing keyboard Bridge
26 seconds	Leaving house (e.g. putting on coat, etc) split with ‘memories’: sepia effect videos and photos Chorous one
32 seconds	Laundrette, art gallery (small clip), tram (?), KN getting annoyed, split with keyboard Verse two
3 seconds	KN playing keyboard Bridge two
21 seconds	Paying at launderette, fast forward effect of coming out launderette down pavement, KN getting more annoyed, split with ‘memories’: sepia effect videos and photos Chorous two
	See Skele at distance standing in the rain, KN turns and audience see guilty expression. Fast forward into Café (eating ice-cream), clothes shop KN gives awkard smiles to Skele, split with keyboard, skeleton comes into view directly in front of her and she sings to him (instead of audience) Verse 3
4 seconds	KN playing piano Bridge three
50 seconds	Leaving clothes shop, walking down road? Park? (something with sunset) laughing together, very clichéd. Split with ‘memories’: sepia effect videos and photos, and keyboard, ending shot on holding hands.

Editing song on iMovie

We cut out the start of the song because it was quiet and there wasn't many instruments.

We also cut out a middle verse of the song because it was long and didn't really go with the narrative. We think having a shorter song will make our video better because we don't have to fill in bits to make up time. 

Filling in the gap to make it smoother.

Finished cut. I overlapped some of the piano and violin audio over the singing to make the cut smoother.

SKELETON

THE MAIN MAN!

 Creepy and slightly disturbing but that's one of the main things I like about our skeleton. Sort of like an old teddy bear thats been so over-used, it also looks creepy and slightly disturbing.

Skeleton and our 'Kate Nash' for our tester video (this isn't the definate 'Kate').

Full-sized picture of our skeleton- some parts of it are actually real.

Another full shot of our skeleton :)

Locations!

The original idea was to find 'DOTTY'S CAFE'. We met in town to find it and take a few pictures but we couldn't find it. I went back a few days later and did some investigating- it has closed down.

However, the road where Dotty's was situated has quite a few little vintage shops so went to a few and have so far got permission to use all of the following for our music video:

 1. THE LAUNDERETTE
I thought this would be really good as it was carry on with Kate Nash's 60's theme. It is really bright inside so perfect lighting. The interior has a lot of character so we could maybe use it as a neutral location such as for the chorus.








This really relates to our target audience. I asked the owner which type of customers they usually get. She said this Launderette is very popular with university students doing their laundry during the lunchtimes. So our ideal target audience would relate to it.

Some washing machines?

Outside doesn't seem particularly vintage but the inside is really nice; the lighting is perfect as it is a conservatory plus, the owners seems pretty relaxed about what we did in their cafe.

Long shot of the interior of cafe, it seems pretty adaptable...

Camera doesn't really capture it well, it looks better than this!

Classic really old



Lyrics & Cut Song

As we have discovered our song lasts 5 minutes and 7 seconds, we felt it was too long we would be unable to create a quality music video which lasted this long. herefore we have decided to cut a verse out;

The lyrics we have taken out:

'Cause sometimes at night,
I dream of the most terrible things
I take a hammer and I creep out of bed
And I raise it high
And I smash your head
Fibular and tubular
And ribs and cages, too
In fact, while I'm here
I'll smash the whole of you
Smaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaash                         The New Lyrics;

                                                                         

Skeleton you are my friend
But you are made of bone
And you have got no flesh and blood
Running through you to help protect the bone

Skeleton we have been friends for years
And you have seen me through some trials
And tribulations and some tears
But everybody thinks I'm weird
And I should have known
That it wouldn't be long
Until you, you've got me standing in an awkward position
With unwanted attention and a need for explanation
And it's not that I'm letting go of you
But I don't know what to do
Skeleton we are so close
But you have got no body
So why do you insist on wearing clothes
Skeleton when we were young
It was easy
Even though the other kids
They would tease me
But I was only seven I had you
But now I'm twenty-two
And now it's different, when I take you out
And you, you've got me standing in an awkward position
With unwanted attention and a need for explanation
And it's not that I'm letting go of you
But I don't know what to do

But Skeleton, you are my friend
And I could never bring your life to an end
Yes Skeleton you are, you are my friend
And I will be there for you until the end
And even though, when I take you out
You've got me, you've got me standing in an awkward position
With unwanted attention and a need for explanation
I could, I could never let you go
And that is all I know
And that is all I know
And that is all I, that is all I know
And that is all I know, know


The length of our new edited version of the song is now 3.35 minutes as we will also not begin the music video until it is 12 seconds into the introduction, when the piano features in it. 

This is the cut song.

concept pitch feedback

We designed a pitch for our music video as part of our research and planning, we then asked for feedback from the audience of teenagers, of both sexes, as to what they thought.

'Great Concept...too in key with the artist rather than devoting the video to the tone of the music', 'The song is quite long, maybe you could try to edit a section out...Liked the skeleton idea'. 'The vintage look you are aiming for is too focused on, and should perhaps be less of a priority...the theme is really interesting and captivating of our attention'. 'The song is a little long, and one or too ideas may be unachievable, however  the over all concept is great!'

We now have lots of suggestions to take into account whilst we plan our music video further, we have been able to see our potential audience's initial thoughts, and now have a clearer understanding of the direction we want to take our video in, what we can and can't include, and what our audience's  likes and dislikes are. By completing our pitch we have shaped our music video to complement it's target audience.   

mood board

I took this screen shot from Lady Gaga's video 'Bad Romance'. I like the way she has used the skeleton as if it is a real person because it it lying in the bed next to her. It has a really edgy effect. 

I though this would be a good idea for if we decide to do a scene in a cafe/park. The cakes look home made and simple. Kate Nash doesn't tend to go for the really glamorous expensive look so these cakes would be perfect to fit in with this idea.

I love the way these two pictures are edited to make them look like vintage films. This effect would be good to use in part of our music video as it fits in with the Indie conventions and genre. The idea is to make them look individual which would mean not fitting in with the other glamorised music videos that are around at the moment. 

These three pictures would make great props for the scenes. As well as focussing on the location, little touches like props would really complete the mise en scene.

The four pictures above are ones that will inspire the costume we will have in the video. I think it would be affective to incorporate a 60's indie look such as floral and gingham dresses, high waisted shorts/skirts and loud patterns with subtle skeleton accessories such as rings and jewellery.      

We thought as part of the narrative that we would use pictures of the skeleton and the main singer growing up together. Polaroid pictures would be a good way of showing this as the exposure makes them look old and look as if they are from far back in the past such as the 60's/70's.

As part of out video we are going to use musical instruments to show the performance element of the song. These instruments are simple looking and again would fit in with the indie ideology and conventions.

These pictures are ideas for props and CD design. The first three pictures would be good to use on the CD cover as they are simple looking and use the skeleton idea. The last picture uses the idea that the skeleton would fit into every day life and fit in with humans/mannequins.